"Labour and Delivery"

In mid last year, I entered the Bunbury Regional Hospital Maternity ward to have my 3rd child. After 2 previous emergency c sections at this hospital I went in thinking I knew exactly what to expect as I was quite happy with my previous experience at the hospital.

I was booked in for a scheduled c section but my waters broke days before in the later evening. I immediately called the hospital as I knew it would be another emergency c section (I knew I was unable to deliver naturally and so I wanted to give them as much notice as I could). My partner and myself also tested positive for covid that same day but with no symptoms. The midwife I spoke to on the phone told us that my partner would be allowed to come with me as I also had covid (if I didn’t they wouldn’t be aloud to).

I believe this midwife also was well aware I needed a c section but I was told to stay at home and wait for my contractions to get closer together. I was a little confused as it was my 3rd baby after 2 previous c sections and assumed I would need to be monitored more closely.

I then began to bleed an hour later and called again telling them I was on my way. When we arrived, the same midwife set my partner and I up in a room. I was given morphine and told to rest. The morphine didn’t help. I alerted staff and on multiple occasions in the night that my contractions were both getting closer together and more and more painful. I felt there was so much reluctance to call in theatre staff and the midwife really wanted to hold out until the morning (I recall in their own words) which I can only assume was due to overworked staff but in that moment felt a litte like negligence too.

In the early morning after very little sleep my partner was told they in fact had to leave and was no longer able to attend the birth of our baby. I felt there was clearly no set rules for covid patients?

By the time the doctor came in at approximately1 hour after my partner had left my contractions were incredibly painful and 4 minutes apart. And at that point I hadn’t been checked to see if I had dilated in the night. I ended up screaming in pain with multiple midwife’s in the room ensuring me that theatre would be ready soon. I started to become terrified of rupturing at this point. By mid-morning I was finally on the way to theatre.

I can’t fault the theatre experience. I found the staff in there were incredible and even though my partner missed our baby's birth which will always hurt a little my parent was aloud to be there as my support person. But in the hours leading up to it were, I felt, incredibly disappointing and a little traumatic, probably would have felt a lot more traumatised had it been my first child and birthing experience.